Project Nemesis: Book 1: Blood and Metal by Will Crudge

Author:Will Crudge [Crudge, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

The stealth warship transitioned from FTL to normal spacetime as the viewscreen in the CIC rendered the video image of the Māori orbital defense platforms. The platforms were nothing more than armored satellites bristling with an array of both ballistic and beam cannons. Each one of the automated platforms held high orbits around the equator and numbered eight in all. However, only four were currently unobstructed by the Earth-like planet, and those were the only ones that mattered to Guillermo.

“Boss, transition complete. Stealth integrity remains steady above ninety percent,” the helmsman reported.

Ninety percent will have to do. Guillermo thought. The frequency bands of RF radiation of planetary communications networks wreaked havoc on the dynamic stealth systems that actively absorbed sensor energy, matched them with an inverted waveform, and transmitted it back to the source under the estimated power levels the Māori receivers were expected to measure. In this way, any returns that managed to bounce back to the sensor arrays would be nullified or dismissed as background radiation.

This did nothing to hide the ship from the naked eye. The matte black ceramic coating helped with that, but Guillermo was leery about presenting a silhouette between the orbital defense platforms and the daylight reflecting from the planet’s atmosphere.

“Sensors, find my ship,” Guillermo ordered. The nameless knuckle-dragger replied with a thumbs up as he went to work.

“Weapons status?”

“Onboard cannons and point defense are at full charge. Auxiliary weapons pods are initializing. Estimate twenty seconds for ballistics and missile pods.”

Guillermo waved the weapons console operator off with an acknowledging gesture. His eye traced along the data streams now pouring into his command console as the ship’s computers. The downside of coming out of FTL this close to one’s objective was problematic from a situational awareness standpoint. Subspace has a subset of quantum physics that doesn’t allow a vessel to interact with the third dimension while underway.

Lurking this closely to a heavily fortified planet was a calculated risk. Guillermo reasoned that the sensors that track temporal activity, such as FTL transitions, tended to focus further from the planet, as most ship captains were unwilling to risk colliding with a planet if their calculations were off.

Guillermo, however, was already in-system when he entered subspace. Due to the close range, this had exponentially fewer variables for the guidance systems to account for. It was the only thing that gave him the confidence to execute such a dangerous maneuver. After all, using any mode of FTL travel within or near a planet’s gravity well was considered reckless.

Recklessness is attacking a battleship directly. Even with the additional weaponry strapped to his hull, Guillermo was not suicidal.

Let the clones take the risks.

“Located the target vessel rising into exo-atmospheric space at an eighteen-degree angle from the point of origin. Reported. Guillermo was pleased that he may not have to execute this operator for incompetence.

“Is the pod ready?” Guillermo asked the flight control operator.

“Ordinance and personnel are loaded; pre-flight checks complete.” was the reply.

Now was the hard part. Tricking a battleship into accepting his Trojan horse.

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